Accidents
by kl999
Summary: Accidents will happen.


not mine. 

"Derek," Casey said in a low voice.

Derek woke up with a start.

"Sorry, didn't mean to take you out of your _studies_," Casey said, her eyes twinkling. Derek smiled and swatted at her playfully.

"I'm just power napping! I only have a hundred more pages to go!" he said defensively.

"And you're going to read it in forty-five minutes? Good luck," Casey sarcastically said. He rolled his eyes and she continued. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm not feeling good and I'm going to go see Shannon."

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know. It's weird. My stomach, my head, my…everything hurts. I'm hoping she'll be able to diagnose me." Casey tone was still unserious.

Derek laughed. "Shannon? She can't even pass gym. You'd be better off with Big Mike doing the diagnosis."

Casey laughed hard. Big Mike was the resident janitor at the college they both attended.

Derek smiled, proud of his joke. Things had turned out differently than he could have dared to dream in high school. Eventually, he and Casey had gained some common ground. Living with each other had apparently done them some good, as Derek had grown up a little out of his womanizing ways and Casey had lightened up by leaps and bounds.

So, after high school, Casey and Derek had surprisingly, decided to go to the same college. Derek had picked up his grades, and Casey lowered her standards a bit because she absolutely loved the campus. So, naturally, they decided to room together. After all, what was a few more years living under the same roof? Not that either was willing to admit it, but the last year had been strangely tolerable. They would absolutely never go so far as to say it, but it had been enjoyable.

Not that they had given up their old ways. Casey still got on to Derek sometimes about trivial matters, and Derek sometimes irritated Casey just to see her mad. They still bickered more than most. It was the same old Derek and Casey, with just a bit of maturity added into the mix.

Casey smiled that little half-moon smile of hers before she said something defending her friend. Derek didn't catch it. He stared at her mouth, contemplating how it could twist upward in such a way. That smile drove him crazy (not that he would admit that to anyone, either.)

"…actually smarter than you think!" Casey finished. Derek let out a short laugh, and with his pencil, nudged his step-sister away jokingly.

"Go see Shannon, Case. I don't want you infecting me,"

She faked a hurt look and walked away. "I'll be back soon."

Derek turned around and started reading his book again. He tried not to think about Casey. She had this nasty little habit of interrupting him while he was trying to focus on something and she'd just get stuck in his brain, even after she left.

After a while, he realized that he hadn't heard the front door open or close. He'd been sitting there for about ten minutes. Had Casey even left yet?

"Casey? You still here?" Derek called. There was no response. Frowning, he put his book away and padded into the next room. "Casey?"

And there she was. Lying on the ground in a heap in the middle of the floor. Derek's adrenaline shot up.

"Casey?" He shook her gently. She moaned and moved a little. "Casey, are you okay?"

Her eyelids fluttered open and he breathed a sigh of relief. She had just collapsed. He went into the kitchen and wet a towel. Bringing it back to her, he touched it to her face and forehead. She only moaned again and stirred slightly. He was getting more and more worried by the second.

Then, to his horror, Casey coughed a little. Blood spurted out of her mouth. "Oh my god," he exclaimed, not even aware of himself anymore. Vaguely, he realized that he needed to turn her head. He moved it fully to the side and she continued to cough, more blood coming out of her mouth.

Derek froze. Then he yelled, not wanting to leave Casey. "Help! Someone in here! We need help!"

The door opened. A group of people had been passing by and they looked in curiously. Their eyes widened when they saw the scene before them. It only took one look at Derek's shocked face to realize something was terribly wrong.

"Someone help! Someone call 911!" Derek said frantically. "Casey…just fell. I don't know…"

One of the girls shoved him roughly away from Casey and motioned for her friend to find the phone. "I'm in med school," she said. "Everyone, out in the hall!" she ordered.

They practically ran to comply. Derek stood away from the scene, dazed at what he saw. Casey was lying on the ground. A large bloodstain covered the floor now, which currently matched the stains on the knees of his pants and his fingers. He could vaguely hear the friend's voice talking to a 911 operator.

The world started moving a little more slowly as the girl with Casey started yelling things at her friend. "Bring me a towel! And some water!"

The friend rushed in with the things. Derek stood by helplessly. The first girl attended to Casey while the second fluttered around, but Derek barely noticed them as they passed him by. He stood by the door, one hand on the frame, smattering blood wherever he touched. He knew there was yelling and commotion, but it seemed distanced from him. All he could focus on was Casey's face. Her lovely brown hair was strewn around her like some sort of halo. Her face looked contorted, and her mouth would open long enough for some more dark red liquid to stain her lips. Her face was pale, almost white. She looked like a doll in some sort of perverse, twisted playhouse.

There was a loud stomping in the hallway, and the door burst open. Derek, still stunned, could say nothing as eight brawny paramedics poured through the door into the small dorm room. They lifted Casey onto the stretcher. "Who was here when this happened?" one of them yelled.

Derek stepped forward. "I'm…I was her…I'm her step-brother. We live together…and she just fell…"

"Sir, you'll need to come with us," the same man said to him.

Derek closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was on the ambulance. Casey was still on the stretcher. They had an oxygen pump to her mouth, and one of the men was doing chest compressions. Derek opened his mouth to say something. It looked like he was going to break Casey's chest. He was pushing down too hard. She wasn't that big. She was going to fold and break.

In another minute they were at the hospital. While earlier time had been moving too slow, now it feel like everything was rushing out of control. The paramedics rushed Casey out of the ambulance and through the doors. Derek stood there in their wake.

One of the paramedics (the one who had driven the ambulance) got out of the car and walked slowly towards Derek.

He spoke, and his voice was soft. "Hello, my name is Mark. You'll need to tell us everything that happened…"

………

Derek was sitting in one of the waiting room chairs. The initial shock of the accident had worn off and he was waiting anxiously for a doctor. They said they would tell him what had gone wrong. He had been waiting for an eternity.

The image of blood coming out of Casey's lips had been haunting Derek since he had stepped out of the ambulance. Worst-case scenarios played in his head. Most of them involved Casey on an operating table, dead, with the doctor dramatically saying, "We did everything we could…"

When sitting became impossible, he started to pace. Nervously, he stalked around the lobby. A friend had called his cell phone to try and get in touch with his parents, but he realized as he was giving him the number that the entire Mac-Donald-Venturi clan was en route to Sweden right now. Casey and Derek had been the only ones unable to go because they had to go back to college. How ironic. _Who goes to Sweden in the middle of the year? _he thought bitterly.

He glanced toward the doors they had taken her into every few seconds. He found himself pacing closer and closer to them until finally, he was right at them.

He sighed, walked to the wall, and leaned on it wearily. He hurt. He hurt all over.

Doubling down, he dragged his fingers through his hair and pressed his lips together. She was going to be okay. She was going to be fine. Everything was going to be all right.

The doors swung open and a man in a blood-smattered blue smock exited the surgical wing. Derek took one look at him and wanted to cry. The man approached him directly. His expression was a somber one.

He was covered in blood. Casey's blood. Derek sat down on a chair suddenly, without warning.

"Derek Venturi? You came in with Casey MacDonald, correct?"

Derek nodded slowly, painfully. This was it.

"We had to go into emergency surgery. She had sustained massive internal bleeding from something, but we're not sure the cause."

_Internal bleeding_. The words seemed like a death sentence. Not hers, but his. He felt the door shut, the curtain fall, the prison bars close.

"We operated and stopped the bleeding. The surgeons are still operating, trying to find the source of what caused all this, but she's gonna be okay."

Derek had been expecting bad news. It took him a minute to register what the doctor said. "Okay?" he asked dumbly.

The doctor nodded. "It will be a difficult recovery, but she'll make it out. Just let me know when her parents get here."

Derek shook his head, trying to clear his jumbled brain. "Yeah, alright," he muttered. The doctor turned around and walked back to the OR, and Derek put his head in his hands and smiled. It turned into a laugh. Okay. She was going to be okay.

………

Even though Derek knew she wasn't going to die, the next few hours were difficult. He wanted to see her so badly. Just to verify that the doctor wasn't lying. He just needed to be with her, in her company.

About three hours after the doctor had first come out, another one, this time a woman, came into the lobby.

"Mr. Venturi?" she called. Derek stood up. "Casey's in recovery and waking up. She asked to see you."

Derek followed the nurse at a nervous trot down a long white corridor. Lots of nurses smiled at him as he walked. Each one seemed to be saying, "It's okay. She's okay."

She pushed open a door, and Casey lay in a hospital bed. Tubes and cords connected her to all kinds of monitoring machines, which beeped periodically. She looked at Derek as he walked in and gave a weak smile.

Derek almost fell over with relief. He sat down next to the bed and smiled back in what he hoped was an optimistic way. "How are you feeling?" he asked quietly.

Casey didn't answer for a moment. She cleared her throat, shook her head, and sighed. "Better," was all she said. Her voice was groggy from the pain medication and she looked dazed.

"I'm so…I'm glad…I'm just…I…" All of the words that Derek had ever wanted to say to her had been churning in his mind for the past few hours. They all tried to tumble out at once. Derek sighed, gave up, and smiled. "Happy you're okay."

"Me too," Casey said. She reached out her hand, and Derek quickly took it. He held it to his chest for a minute. Tears welled in his eyes. He let out a rueful laugh as he tried not to cry.

He was just so glad she hadn't gone. It was so easy. Just like that, the doctor could have come out and told him that he was sorry, they had been unable to save her.

He wasn't sure who he would be without Casey. Their identity was twisted in tied together in ways he hadn't even been aware of before today. Three hours in a waiting room did a lot to a person's mind.

Casey gazed up at his face and smiled that same half-moon smile. Then, leaning forward, she gave him a chaste but firm kiss on the lips.

For some reason, Derek wasn't surprised. They had been dancing around this for nearly five years now. And in a time like this, it felt stupid to waste time with propriety and the proper reaction.

It was a short kiss, like something they would do many more times in their life. Derek was sure they would.

"I love you," she stated. There was no lie, no trace of dishonesty in her eyes. They stared at him, unafraid, unashamed. Just…pure.

Derek felt the last piece of the puzzle click into place. There were no worries on his mind, no stresses about the future. He knew they'd have to deal with Armageddon, but that was later. Right now was for _right now_. "I love you, too."

okay guys. heres another one. okay so i definitely cannot figure out how to work it took me SUCH a long time to edit this thing. and i dont know if this will either work. i remember trying to edit missing and eventually i had to just walk away...haha. well i realize the summary is from degrassi. the phrase was stuck in my head and i just used it (i hate titles! and summaries!) and then a reviewer told me it was from degrassi. yeah. sorry bout that lol. also if this story seems really choppy...thats because it is. this was a different story originially but i didnt like it, changed it, took out a TON of other characters, etc. this is probably the most cut and pasted story in the universe. so i might still be tweaking it. a few parts bother me. but anyways this is just a one-shot. probably won't turn into more unless i feel the need. but thanks for the positive reviews everyone! LOOVVVVEE IT. 


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